Minor league baseball is about development. A player focuses on becoming a better hitter, fielder or pitcher.

But there's nothing wrong with becoming a champion along the way.

The Greenville Drive on Saturday night earned a chance to become South Atlantic League champions, riding the dominant right arm of Hildemaro Requena and the power bat of Bobby Dalbec to a 5-0 victory at Fluor Field that emphatically clinched the best-of-three Southern Division playoff series against the Charleston RiverDogs.

In its first postseason since 2010, Greenville advances to a best-of-five series against the Kannapolis Intimidators for the SAL championship. Game 1 is Monday night in North Carolina.

"We had a nice celebration," Drive manager Darren Fenster said. "This doesn't happen all the time, to make the postseason, and to advance makes it doubly special.

"It's two wins and not a ring, but it's certainly something to celebrate."

Requena (11-3) continued to show his development. After spending much of the season in the bullpen, he received a chance to start after several other pitchers earned promotions to higher minor league levels.

On Saturday, Requena held the RiverDogs scoreless by limiting them to four hits and three walks in 7 1/3 innings. Requena, 20, has not allowed an earned run in a month, a span of 36 1/3 innings during which opponents have managed only 15 hits.

He struck out four Saturday, but more important to his pitching, he got 12 outs on groundballs.

"He's a great example of a pitcher who says, 'Ready, here it is, hit it,' " Fenster said. "He's going after the hitters with (pitches that) sink and trusting his defense behind him."

Requena left in the eighth ahead 2-0 but with two runners on base. Joan Martinez got a strikeout and a flyout to end Charleston's threat, and Dalbec then made it much harder for the RiverDogs to threaten Greenville's lead again.

With two runners on, two outs and two strikes, Dalbec homered to o expand the Drive's lead to five runs with Charleston having only one at-bat remaining.

For Dalbec, a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 who had helped Arizona reach the College World Series championship game, 2017 has been a struggle. An injury cost him nearly two months of the season, and he has been unable to find consistency at the plate. The homer, however, was his fourth in nine games.

"That homer was huge," Fenster said. "Two outs and two strikes, and he gives us a five-run cushion. Before, one runner gets on and the tying run comes to the plate. The cushion was huge."

Especially when Martinez lost his command in the ninth, walking the bases loaded with two outs. Fenster brought in Daniel Gonzalez, and two pitches later, the Drive were celebrating.

Kannapolis, like Greenville, earned a playoff berth by winning a divisional first-half championship and since then has seen a number of players promoted. The teams haven't faced each other since Aug. 9.

"They're a completely different team than the first half," Fenster said, "and we've had a lot of players move up, too. At this point in the season, you don't worry about that. You just go out and play. And if we go out and play to our capabilities, we could have even more to celebrate."